From CineVantage Productions, TOUCHDOWN ON THE TUNDRA is the true story of a high school in desolate Barrow, Alaska. Then isolated Native Iñupiat kids find new hope and purpose in a controversial football program fueled by, of all things, a Florida football mom.

News of Bird’s attachment to the project comes as the NFL Network, this Thursday, launches an eight-episode series on life and football in Barrow.

“TOUCHDOWN ON THE TUNDRA is far more than a sports story,” Bird said. “From opposite ends of the country, two mothers take on an impossible challenge in the planet’s most remote town. In the process, a generation of young men gain entirely new life purpose. We’re thrilled, first, to help write this remarkable story, and then to bring it to the big screen.”

In more than three decades of writing and producing, Bird has specialized in life- and faith-affirming films and television. Joining Bird in TOUCHDOWN writing is WGA award-winning writer John Wierick–redrafting an initial script by Marshal Younger and Torry Martin.

The screenplay turns partly on the life of Cathy Parker—the Florida mom whose faith, grit and determination changed the fortunes of Barrow and its people—and partly on the book Thunder on the Tundra—Football Above the Arctic Circle by Lew Freedman.

Parker—a coach’s wife and working mother of four in Florida—saw a documentary about Barrow’s bleak existence and diminishing hopes, particularly among its young men and women. Quixotically, when asked what would give them hope, the schoolkids answered: “Football.” At the time, they played on a gravel field, and posted snipers at practice to ward off polar bears.

Parker determined not only to bring the Barrow players to Florida to train with her husband’s team, but to build the Alaskans a first-class artificial-turf field. TOUCHDOWN ON THE TUNDRA is the amazing, true story of a coach’s wife determined to help another team of kids, far, far away.

“If it weren’t for Cathy Parker, there would be no Barrow football program. It’s that simple,” CineVantage Productions Producer Honnie Korngold said. “Now Brian and John are on a team to bring her unlikely and true story to everyone.”

Los Angeles and Denver-based CineVantage Productions develops and produces feature films for family audiences. With a foundation in non-fiction television production, Producer Honnie Korngold founded CineVantage in 2009 and has grown it to a burgeoning independent film company producing feature films and documentaries committed to stories of inspiration and hope.

TURF NEWS!

Cathy Parker’s vision took her from the television screen of her St. Johns County home to the frozen tundra of the Arctic. And right along the banks of the Arctic Ocean, her little project, an $800,000 miracle that defied logistics and business practices and doubters continues to inspire. Parker’s quest to help secure a state-of-the-art […]